This refugee/ asylum business. My father arrived in this country in 1957, having had to walk out of Hungary to Austria in winter to avoid a death sentence for taking part in the uprising of 1956. He spoke no English, had no money, knew no one but his travel companions. #thread

He was prepared to work as a medic to the mines in Barnsley but an amnesty (imagine!) from universities around the UK offered Hungarian students the chance to complete their studies. He got into Keble College Oxford, and completed his medical degree there & at Kings.

Able to live “in” during term, he worked as a KP at Le Boulestin in Covent Garden, a porter at the Royal Academy & drove a fish delivery van around Oxfordshire during the holidays so he could survive. He became a radiographer & later was a GP in Liverpool for over 40 years.

He repaid Keble for his living costs & offered accommodation to Hungarian medical students on exchanges with Liverpool Uni. He repaid the UK govt for offering him sanctuary by working at the sharp end of community medicine (in the days when docs did housecalls). We never saw him.

If someone has the drive, gumption & sheer determination to get to the UK because their homeland has become intolerable or they fear for their lives, they give up friends, family, culture, language. It is NOT the easy option. Be kind. It will be repaid.